Investigating Factors and Potential Biases that Might Help Explain the Overrepresentation of People from Ethnic Minority Backgrounds Amongst Missing Person Cases

In the 2019-20 UK Missing Persons Unit (UKMPU) Annual Data Report, 23 forces in England and Wales reported investigating a disproportionate number of Black missing persons when compared to the general population (UK Missing Persons Unit, 2021b). For example, at that time, 14% of missing persons in the United Kingdom (UK) were categorised as Black, while census data indicated that Black people made up just 3% of the population (UK Government, 2020). The current research sought to understand why this might be.